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| Photo Credit |
Above is an amazing photo of Southeastern Michigan tweeted by Astronaut Shane Kimbrough. The cities of Detroit, Toledo and Cleveland are visible. The white glow of Detroit's new LED street lights clearly distinguishes the City.
The blog below was written in December of 2012. It describes Detroit's place in history as one of the first major cities to install street lights, or "moonlight towers" as they were called in the 1890s.
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There are over 85,000 street lights in Detroit and over half aren't working. It was recently announced that a new Detroit Lighting Authority would be created in an attempt to make long over due repairs.
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| PLD Street light installed
at DHC's Emerald Springs
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Despite their condition, have you ever stopped to notice the various designs? I recently witnessed the installation of street lights at three Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) developments. Surveying a few nearby streets quickly reveals quite a few selections ranging from older incandescent pendants to the typical white yellow glow of cantilevering low pressure sodium lamps.
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| Street light found in Detroit's Harmonie Park |
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| Street light found on Gratiot Avenue |
Doing a little research, I discovered that Detroit was one of the first cities to electrically light its streets. The early solution was found in engineered structures nicknamed "Moonlight Towers". Extremely bright lamps known as carbon arc lamps were hung from towers more than 150 feet in height. Between the 1890s and 1910s, more than 120 towers illuminated 21 square miles of Detroit. Part of the system was sold to the City of Austin, Texas in 1895. Today, one can still find 15 of these original Detroit towers illuminating various Austin neighborhoods. Pictures can be found by going to this link: Andy Mattern Photography.
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| A moonlight tower standing in the foreground of Detroit's Old City Hall circa. 1900 Lycurgus S. Glover |
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| A working replica of a moonlight tower located in Zilker Park, Austin, Texas built in 1967 Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0 |
The demise of Detroit's tower lighting system was caused by chiefly two developments around the turn of the century. First, new construction technology enabled buildings (otherwise known as skyscrapers) to be taller than the towers. Taller buildings meant less effective light distribution. Second, the development of incandescent lamp technology. Though these early arc lamps were in fact more energy efficient than incandescent fixtures, they in comparison had poor light distribution patterns (including flickering), generated greater amounts of noise and heat (sometimes even sparks), and had shorter life cycles.
As we move into the second decade of the 21st century, street light technology is again improving as cities make the transition to cutting edge, energy efficient LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology.
Learn more about Detroit's early street light system by reading this article in Low Tech Magazine.
Most visitors to Austin notice the unusual streetlights strategically located throughout the city known as the moonlight towers, but most are not aware of the history of the towers. Probably the most well known of the moonlight towers is the one in Zilker Park which is used every year to represent a huge Christmas tree, when it is encircled with multi-colored lights and can be seen from miles away.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually 17 moonlight towers in and around Austin, including the Zilker tower, and these lights have been in use since the late 1800s, when Austin purchased the lights from the city of Detroit. In 1894, 31 used mercury vapor lamps were installed throughout Austin, and at the time, these types of lights were used in many cities across the country, but Austin is the only city still using them today.
Mark from Electrical Engineering
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Thanks for sharing this informative information about led moon light lamp with us. It's very helpful. Keep it up!
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